A man admitted taking a social worker hostage at knifepoint in council offices.

Darren Golightly, 27, from Hartlepool, appeared at Teesside Crown Court yesterday over a television link from Holme House Prison and admitted charges of false imprisonment, affray and possessing an offensive weapon.

Golightly smuggled a steak knife with a six-inch blade into Stockton Council's social service offices in Queensway, Billingham, on July 31.

He wanted to discuss the future of his two children. He was taken to a room by family case worker Susan Oliver.

Inside the room he produced the knife and he pushed a chair against the door and sat there, blocking her escape.

Mrs Oliver told police she thought she would never see her two-year-old daughter again. Golightly claimed to have been in the SAS and the Marines.

She said that his eyes were glaring as he kept repeating "It's your fault, you took my kids away."

She said that Golightly smelled of alcohol but he claimed that he had drunk only two cans. At one point Golightly threw a cigarette at her but she told him that it was a no-smoking building.

She managed to shout a warning to a woman colleague next door, and ten minutes later a police armed response unit stormed the office and disarmed him.

When charged he made full admissions. Golightly, of Rugby Street, Hartlepool, will be sentenced in three weeks' time. He was remanded in custody for pre-sentence reports.